JCU JCU Medicine: General Entry Discussion

[Coolios]

No JCU Invite
Predicted ATAR/GPA: 6.9 (1 FTE)
Rural: RA2 (though I went to a school in the city)
Application focus: (Med only, or Med+Dent) Med only
Volunteering: (yes/no) Yes
Health industry employment: (yes/no) No
Other health related experience: (yes/no) Yes

 

[AM74]

Hi all, I’m just trying to see whether there’s any meaningful conclusions to be drawn in the JCU data collection this year. For perspective, I’m wondering if there’s anyone out there who didn’t get an invite and would be happy to share their ‘data’, particularly whether they applied for Med only, or Med and Dent, but also the other bits and pieces. Here’s a handy template.

No JCU Invite
Predicted ATAR/GPA:
Rural:
Application focus: (Med only, or Med+Dent)
Volunteering: (yes/no)
Health industry employment: (yes/no)
Other health related experience: (yes/no)

Good luck for second round invites! Be sure to update me if your ‘no invite’ status changes!!

Judging by the responses so far it seems that there is something in the written component that is separating people - not the scores, not the volunteering, but perhaps the way they “sell themselves” on paper? There are some great applicants here with high GPA and relevant history who have missed out

 

[stuart1]

No JCU Invite
Predicted ATAR/GPA: 7.0 (complete BBmed (Hons))
Rural: No (large component of population health during undergrad degree & exposure to rural and Indigenous medicine)
Application focus: Med only
Volunteering: yes
Health industry employment: yes (medical researcher - researching treatments for a disease with highest prevalence globally in Indigenous Australians)
Other health related experience: yes - currently work in hospital

 

[stuart1]

Purely just speculation, feel free to share your thoughts: I am thinking that they must've avoided picking people with too much relevant work experiences or biomedical knowledge. Last years cohort had a high % of non-standards, I can imagine there would be quite a large disparity within the cohort, in both experiences & knowledge of content.

 

[Coolios]

Judging by the responses so far it seems that there is something in the written component that is separating people - not the scores, not the volunteering, but perhaps the way they “sell themselves” on paper? There are some great applicants here with high GPA and relevant history who have missed out

Maybe something to this, I do struggle 'talking myself up'.
So speaking for myself, that could have potentially be seen in my application.

 

[chocoholicboi]

No JCU Invite
Actual ATAR/GPA: 98.85 (2020, Gap year 2021)
Rural: Nope
Application focus: Dent only
Volunteering: Yep, not in much detail tho
Health industry employment: Nope
Other health related experience: Nope

I applied to Med just cause I had a spare preference on QTAC lol

 

[A1]

Purely just speculation, feel free to share your thoughts: I am thinking that they must've avoided picking people with too much relevant work experiences or biomedical knowledge.

My thinking is more like this - JCU receives around 3700 applications, how many people do we think JCU needs to employ to read & mark the 3700 written applications and what process does JCU have in place to ensure they are marked consistently.

An MSO member got an interview as school leaver (so the written app must be quite good) but didn't get an offer. The next year she applied again with GPA 7.0 - no interview. (She's about to graduate from a grad school btw)

 

[ucatboy]

My thinking is more like this - JCU receives around 3700 applications, how many people do we think JCU needs to employ to read & mark the 3700 written applications and what process does JCU have in place to ensure they are marked consistently.

An MSO member got an interview as school leaver (so the written app must be quite good) but didn't get an offer. The next year she applied again with GPA 7.0 - no interview. (She's about to graduate from a grad school btw)

Yeah I'd chalk it up to inconsistencies between the various application reviewers, as it's unlikely they'll have the time to calibrate marking standards or have each application reviewed by multiple people. I don't buy the "JCU doesn't want people who are too knowledgeable or experienced", as looking at both the interview received and not received posts, the calibre of the average applicant is very high - virtually everyone has answered "yes" to at least one of the volunteering/employment/work experience questions.

With 3700 applications to review and at most a few minutes per application (5 minutes on each application = 310 hours of employment!), first impressions probably matter the most. Beginning with the basics, I feel that anyone who's missing any part of the application is immediately struck out, as is anyone who doesn't have the 3 letters of recommendation.

 

[Watermelon6520]

My thinking is more like this - JCU receives around 3700 applications, how many people do we think JCU needs to employ to read & mark the 3700 written applications and what process does JCU have in place to ensure they are marked consistently.

An MSO member got an interview as school leaver (so the written app must be quite good) but didn't get an offer. The next year she applied again with GPA 7.0 - no interview. (She's about to graduate from a grad school btw)

I asked JCU and they said it was 4500 applications this year!

 

[DrDrLMG!]

I’m imagining a tick-sheet type marking scheme designed to streamline the process as much as possible. They’ll at least have the illusion of consistency built into the evaluation system (even if the reality of that is more difficult to implement), it’d be a lawsuit waiting to happen otherwise.

The main question I was hoping to answer was the Med Only vs Med+Dent focussed application. The other questions were for interests sake, but are obviously a bit fuzzy to quantify (ie. you might have volunteering experience but not have focussed too heavily on it in the application). The Med Only vs Med+Dent is easier to answer categorically and has long been a topic of speculation here at MSO.

 

[Watermelon6520]

Surely, the written application is worth more than academics maybe like a 60/40 or 70/30 split?

 

[medislife1]

No JCU Invite
Predicted ATAR/GPA: 7.0 (incomplete degree)
Rural: No
Application focus: (Med only, or Med+Dent) Med only
Volunteering: (yes/no) Yes
Health industry employment: (yes/no) Yes
Other health related experience: (yes/no) Yes

 

[PSTAND]

I asked JCU and they said it was 4500 applications this year!

I wondered how many got through to the interview stage.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

I wondered how many got through to the interview stage.

Typically around 800ish I believe.

 

[Crow]

An MSO member got an interview as school leaver (so the written app must be quite good) but didn't get an offer. The next year she applied again with GPA 7.0 - no interview. (She's about to graduate from a grad school btw)

I'm not sure it's a fair comparison as a non-standard will naturally be expected to produce a much higher quality written application than a school-leaver courtesy of far fewer places being available and the applicant pool having more experiences to draw off than a school-leaver.

 

[ucatboy]

Surely, the written application is worth more than academics maybe like a 60/40 or 70/30 split?

Definitely possible, and when combined with the fact that nearly everyone is coming in with a near-7 GPA or 99+ ATAR, whether academics is weighted 20% or 80% becomes irrelevant, as everyone is essentially matched in that component. The only thing separating applicants is the written application.

 

[DrDrLMG!]

Definitely possible, and when combined with the fact that nearly everyone is coming in with a near-7 GPA or 99+ ATAR, whether academics is weighted 20% or 80% becomes irrelevant, as everyone is essentially matched in that component. The only thing separating applicants is the written application.

It’ll be interesting to see the final offers, but the non-rural ATAR spread for interviews is much wider than 99+. We’ve got predicteds from 94.00 upwards reported here to MSO.

 

[Watermelon6520]

I asked JCU and they said it was 4500 applications this year!

Lol. It looks like JCU told me the wrong info. Got shocked for a sec. Its actually 3600 applications for med.

 

[IttyKitty]

Lol. It looks like JCU told me the wrong info. Got shocked for a sec. Its actually 3600 applications for med.

100 less than last years applications!

 

[AM74]

Lol. It looks like JCU told me the wrong info. Got shocked for a sec. Its actually 3600 applications for med.

Perhaps a combined med & dent total of 4500?
I’m wondering if the 700-800 interviews is just for med and there is a separate number for dent or if that number is med only. Any ideas?